Domestic violence program on Wed.

The Emery County Domestic Violence Coalition is sponsoring Karsyn Robb, songwriter/singer as their guest at their community program this year on Oct, 12 at noon at the county building. She will also present at the High School on the same day for an assembly. Her message is timely for victims of dating violence. Karsyn will offer a free download of her single, "You Told Me," on Itunes for the month of October in honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month.

Do you think your teen or a teen you know may be a victim of dating violence? Several studies indicate that one in three high school students have been or will be involved in an abusive relationship. Could you recognize the warning signs? A teen that is being abused will likely show some of these signs: falling or failing grades,changes in mood or personality, increased indecisiveness, emotional outbursts, use of drugs/alcohol, depression, will become isolated, physical signs of injury such as cuts, bruises, makes excuses for the abusers behavior, begins to put herself/himself down.

The cycle of dating violence is noteworthy to mention because of its psychological/emotional impact over time. As tensions rise in the relationship, fighting increases, a partner becomes more critical, judgmental, and disrespectful of the other, and anger builds.

Next in the cycle, a violent episode occurs such as hitting, damaging property, yelling, making threats, pushing, etc. The honeymoon stage completes the cycle as the offending partner apologies, makes excuses, speaks remorsefully, buys presents, says it won't happen again, and does things to try to make up for their abusive behaviors. As this cycle is often repeated, a bond develops that hooks the victim to the abuser, making it difficult to end the relationship.

A tip for parents is to keep your eyes and ears open when your teen is dating. Stay involved and be available when your teen wants to talk. Know the signs of an unhealthy relationship. Make a safety plan with your teen if problems are detected. Express concern for the teen's safety and be supportive and patient. If you are a teenager involved in an abusive relationship, you need to remember that no one deserves to be abused or threatened. Remember that you cannot change the batterer and the violence will only get worse. Safety planning is important and you can tell a trusting adult about the abuse to help you. Strategies to consider may be to change your school locker or lock, find out who can tell at school to assist your in being safe, change your route to/from school, use a buddy system between classes and at after school activities, change your cell phone number, identify friends who can help you be safe, keep a journal of the abuse, and be aware of where you could go quickly to get away from an abusive person.

What other things can you do? Call 911 for emergencies. The domestic violence hotline at 1-800-897-5465 (LINK) can assist you and help you in locating resources. Locally, call 381-4743 during working hours.

od.

Secondly, many people have been lead to believe that the Postal System is a government owned corporation or a "quasi governmental agency" . . . IT IS NOT, this is another perversion of the constitution, circa 1971 with the imposition of the Postal Reorganization Act. The United States Postal Service IS, as of 1971, an independent agency of the United States government and one of the very few government agencies explicitly authorized (since 1792) by the United States Constitution. In other words, by constitutional mandate the government is REQUIRED to provide postal service to ALL the people of the United States . . . there is no stipulation in that mandate that the government only has the obligation to provide this service in areas where it is profitable any more than there is any stipulation that governments, whether federal, state, or municipal, are only required to provide police or fire services where it is economically feasible.

With respect to Emery County, the current proposal by the Postal Service to close 50% of the post offices in Emery County makes no economic sense, this is especially true at a time when the current administration defends wasting half a billion dollars on a questionable investment in a company developing fantasy technologies. This proposal demonstrates the insensitivity of the urbane, leftist, elites in Washington to the unique needs of rural communities and rural Americans; you know, us dangerous types who cling to our bibles and guns and still believe in American exceptionalism.

In the sprawl of urban areas the distance between post offices is measured in blocks and a post office closure would constitute a minor inconvenience; in rural areas the distance between post offices is measured in tens of miles and the closure of a community's post office is a major inconvenience resulting, in some cases, in individuals only being able to access mail once or twice a week and in the case of the elderly and infirmed would make it virtually impossible for them to access the service that, by constitutional edict, the government is REQUIRED to provide to them. Those of us not affected by the closures of the "non-profitable" rural, post offices in Emery, Clawson, Orangeville, and Cleveland may find ourselves having a tendency to say "That's too bad, but it doesn't affect me." and in the short term that may be true but, I ask you, in the long view, if the government is successful in this assault on rural America, what are you going to do when these same elites decide that one regional post office located in Castle Dale, since that is the county seat, is more feasible than maintaining post offices in Ferron, Huntington, AND Castle Dale or that maintaining "non-profitable" balloting polls in small, rural communities is inefficient so all voting in Emery and Carbon Counties will occur in Price? Won't happen? Fear mongering? Would you have ever believed that the opinion of 1 judge would over-ride the will of 7 Â½ million American voters, that "freedom of religion" would be perverted to become "freedom from religion" and the expulsion of God from our national character, that an unequivocal statement of a right ". . . the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed" would be transformed into a prevarication of that right into a government controlled privilege, or that the belief in American exceptionalism would be considered subversive? All of these things have transpired through the efforts of cynical politicians and a federal government moving further and further from the constitution and facilitated by the expanding judicial dictatorship of an out of control "Supreme" Court which unconstitutionally rewrites the elements of the constitution from the bench through a usurped authority for "interpretation".

In my humble opinion, the amount of savings that would be realized by closing 50% of the post offices in Emery County where the postal box is the ONLY means of receiving mail is, most likely, minuscule in comparison to the savings that could be realized from the closure of just 1 post office in a major metropolitan area such as Salt Lake City where post offices proliferate and home delivery is a given. Moreover, in rural communities, post offices are not merely places to pick-up and drop of mail and packages or buy postage stamps; they have evolved into the beating heart of a community where citizens meet, exchange news, discuss issues of the day, where municipalities disseminate community information, and where the demise of community members are announced . . . these may not be what the post office was designed for but it is what it is in rural communities.

These things having been said the question arises, "Is the United States Postal Service in financial trouble?".